My Gopro 3+ Black 180 degree stereo rig

I think I will start with the Gopro Studio (free) software :) .

Can someone tell me how much image quality I will lose when using the following lens advised by mediavr compared to the stock GoPro Hero 4 Black lens ?

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1-29mm-180-degrees-super-wide-angle-lens-fisheye-lens-sport-camera-lens-M12-mount-lens/32224988585.html

Over on the Facebook 360 Professional Video group the marketing manager for Gopro was talking about a firmware update in February and I asked about the Dual Hero System update for Hero 4s -- and he said they were still working on it -- which means not February I guess. So I would think three months at least ...:-(

mediavr, do you have a stabilization method for dual GoPros in a stereo rig? The Feiyu model you like only appears to support a single, naked GoPro.

re gimbal stabilizers for side by side Gopro rigs --- the one I use I made from a kit from Came-tv but they dont sell it any more and now there are better options (the one I got needed a lot of tuning)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KgSwhdYthE&hd=1

You need something that is advertised as suitable say for a Nex 5 or a small DSLR . You need something where it is easy to tweak the balance.

Side by side means you might need extra strong motors for the roll axis.

There are starting to be three axis stabilizers that might work for this for about $700 ---- eg. http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/12198/pilotfly-3-axis-32bit-dual-imu-handheld-gimbal>

Three axis is cool -- the feiyutech was the first 3 axis gimbal for single gopros.

Entapano have prices and availability and production numbers now for their upcoming super fisheyes
-- a very hi tech option for some Gopro vr video and photography concepts:

http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/2vr7se/entapanos_super_fisheyes_availability_production/

more from me on this reddit thread:

What lenses for what purposes ....

"It depends on what you are using them for. If you want a single 360 video camera then you need something with a lot of coverage beyond 180degrees ie. the 280 or maybe the 250.

If you want a 2 camera back to back 2D 360/180 video camera then the 220 or 250 would be good. But the 220 does not have much overlap (on Gopro's widest 4:3 formats) so exposure blending is a big problem.

The edge resolution of the 220 at 110 degrees is much less than that of the 250 at 110 degrees.

The 220s would make a great side by side 3d 180+ rig. It would not matter so much that the depth would start to reverse past 90 degrees as the coverage only goes to 110 degrees off axis -- but it would be annoying if the L or R edges were always distinctly softer than the rest of the panoramic view.

One problem with all 180+ fisheye lenses is that they image the camera body through more or less of its coverage if you are using them with Gopros (seeing behind themselves as they do.) With a Mobius camera sensor on the remote cable this would not be a problem but the Mobius sensor is smaller than Gopro (maybe 25%) which means less image circle coverage.

There needs to be a remote cable sensor/focusing barrel hack for Gopros to get the sensor away from the camera body. If the 280 mm was 60% larger in size its circumference would exceed the dimensions of the Gopro camera front and the camera would disappear.

As it is with the 280 on a Gopro the camera would occupy about 100 degrees of the sideways/rear view of the lens. So the lens would see 180 by 180 in front of the camera unobstructed. Of the 180 by 180 reverse view of the lens it would be unobstructed through an arc of 260 degrees. And the camera would be in the rest of the rear view. Which is unfortunate.

In fact a 280 on Mobius would not image the camera in the view even with the sensor in the camera in its standard location (ie. not on the end of the remote cable). It would image an unobstructed view about 280 by 130 degrees I think on the sensor area .."

Firstly, i'd like to say thanks to everyone who has posted in this thread, especially mediavr and j1vvy who have been absolutely brilliant in providing quality advice to hobbyists like me on how to achieve the best setup. You guys are all awesome.

I'm new to the VR game (my background is in editing so i have some knowledge of AE, premiere etc) and i would really appreciate any help in setting up, from scratch, a rig for shooting 180 3D video. I'm looking to shoot video with the 'lookaround' affect - shots will be mostly static, lighting controlled. In some ways the best template for the type of videos are the ones made by VirtualRealPorn (not suggesting any of you have seen it!) obviously the content will be different, but i'm trying to approach a similar level of studio-type quality -i'm aware that due to exposure/rolling shutter/everything else that i'll have to settle for what i can achieve, even that i may not come close, but those are my aims.

Would you consider the gopro 3+ solution to be the best currently available? I'm unused to video stitching/synching so i don't know how much of a learning curve is involved there - would you advise getting the 3+ while i wait for an update to the 4 (or 4+) and upgrade then?

I would love suggestions for the following things-

-GoPro model,

-Enclosure model (3dguy? 'official' GoPro holder? some other enclosure?)

-Best stitching software (my aim is to end up with .mp4 files that i can transfer to a mobile device and view in VRplayer)

-Best fisheye lens (i can't find the link but i'm assuming it's the one discussed above?



Any help from any source would be hugely, hugely appreciated :D

If you want the best SxS 3D recording now with 180° lenses then you need to use synced cameras.
The lack of sync with Hero4 will only get you close.

I think you have two choices for lenses.
iZugar www.izugar.com/#products
AliExpress: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1-29mm-180-degrees-super-wide-angle-lens-fisheye-lens-sport-camera-lens-M12-mount-lens/32224988585.html

I have not seen side by side comparison between the iZugar lenses and the iLiExpress but the results from both are very good.
I have the iZugar lenses but currently not using them with GoPro, The image quality is extremely good.

My background comes from panoramic photography and I tend to use those tools. PTGui to align and profile the lens. VideoStitch to process the video quickly. VideoStitch has add 3D support for 360° video, but I have not tested it with non spherical video. My workflow for L & R up until now was to Optimize them together but process them separately. Then combine after using FFMpeg into SxS or O/U

It has been a pain to get a quick preview of what it looks like in 3D now that VideoStitch understands 3D it will be much faster.

GoPro is working on a solution to enable sync with the Hero 4. I have no idea when it will be available. It will take time to perfect your filming. So you can practice with well synced Hero3 or practice with the higher res Hero4 knowing that your sync will get better when you get a cable that works.

Entapano have prices and availability and production numbers now for their upcoming super fisheyes
-- a very hi tech option for some Gopro vr video and photography concepts:

http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments ... roduction/

more from me on this reddit thread:

since I wrote this there have been a couple of developments -- Entapano say there is lots of interest so they will make more than the first batch of lenses but the numbers for the first batch (April) will be the same. Also they talk about how modifying your Gopro with a Backbone kit to make it C mount compatible is a recommended path for using their lenses on Gopros.

I contacted Back-bone.ca to ask about their flexible connecting cable that they use for shifting the Gopro sensor to flush with the front of the Gopro. They said that they had tried chaining 4 of these (to improvise a longer cable to move the sensor away from the camera body - for less rear view occlusion by the camera body with Entapano lenses for example, or closer multicamera rigs for 2D 360s) --- and they said it works fine with Gopro4 Black (but not 3s). So this is good news for being able to use the full view of the 280 degree Entapano lens on Gopro 4 for instance.

There is a Google + group "Stereospheres" for beta testers of a stereo 360 panorama app for Google Cardboard users.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities ... 2409327827
(But not having a recent Android phone I havent tried it.)

The developer, Chris Dickinson, is using twin Gopro 4 Whites plus CCOM Tech 1.29mm 190 degree lenses for capturing very sharp looking stereo still spherical panoramas and experimenting with alternative image compression formats to make fast loading multinode Android vr stereo panorama tours possible.